Review #13: Fukano 2018

I know the recent reviews have been a bit on the lower end, but it mostly has to do with us trying to get rid of a lot of whiskies for 2019 and to make space for new purchases :). So we wrote a bunch of tasting notes… and then brought these badboys to large social gatherings where the complexity of whisky matters far less than its proof. For now, we apologize, but this review and the next are not going to be the most stellar.

Fukano 18 ready for tasting

Tasting Notes

Nose: Nail polish remover, Red-40 soaked cherry that you put into Fuddrucker’s sundaes and the Old Fashioned’s that are eyeballed and muddled with orange peel and bright red cherries at dive bars. Heavy background of wood and vanilla.

I’ll be honest: we bought the 2018 with super high expectations, because the 2017 and the Single Cask K&L version were extremely scrummy (unexpectedly so!). The 2018 ended up just being… lackluster. Now the rest of the bottle is safe in the hands of alcohol-loving MMA fighters, so we are glad it’s at least appreciated.

Summary

5 out of 10. Average. Not exceptional in a good way or a bad way.

Label if it were an SMWS: “Try Again”.

Overview: Loved the 2017 and single cask bottlings, but sadly the 2018 misses the mark by falling far on the acetone & paint thinner side of the equation.